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Sunday, 31 August 2008

Well I guess the summer is, to all intents and purposes, over. Tomorrow is Labour Day (as opposed to Labor Day which they celebrate south of the border) and on Tuesday the kids go back to school. Tomatoes are still dominating my life at the moment, we have processed five bushels so far, we have about nine to go. We mostly use the romas for processing but we always have lots of these field tomatoes around too, to eat with bread and cheese.

I like the coloured backgrounds, this is an old tablecloth that belonged to my mother-in-law, it has an interesting almost abstract pattern.

Saturday, 30 August 2008

I might as well make the most of the fruit while it is here. I liked the contrast between the yellows of the fruit and the periwinkle of the shawl. I have to try to get these right twice, once when I paint and again when I photograph it. This time I think my painting was closer to the original than the reproduction.

Friday, 29 August 2008

Well I am back from Nashville. I can't say I did much drawing, a few sketches of the presenters on hotel scratchpad paper during some of the slower presentations, apart from that I didn't really have a spare minute. Now that I am back I have lots of house-painting to finish up before the winter, I still won't get it finished though. There are lots of lovely peaches yet on the stalls, here are two more.

Monday, 25 August 2008

I am going to be away for a few days, so I am posting in advance. I am going to a conference which I have attended every year for the past five years. Each year it is in a different city and I always try to paint while I am away but usually don't achieve very much. I always take lots of pictures though. Here is a drawing I have just done from a picture I took in Seattle (Pioneer Square district) four (or is it five?) years ago. I had ambitions to do one from each conference to post while I am away but this is as far as I got, so you are stuck with my stash of ACEOs for the rest of the week.

Sunday, 24 August 2008

This was lunch, I decided to prepare it a little early so that I could paint it first. The boys are all at a baseball tournament (the last of the year) so I could use the kitchen , which i s actually my favourite place to paint, with lovely light, lots of room and easy cleanup. I don't seem to be doing as well with the insides of fruit and veg as I do with the outsides. I guess that means I need more practice.

Friday, 22 August 2008

I went out to paint at lunchtime but when I got to my chosen spot I found that I didn't have any water. So I resorted to marker again. I have painted and drawn this view of the theatre from the common before. Go to my other blog to see one I did about 7 years ago. That was when I first started to do daily paintings. I would go out and paint almost every lunch hour, on watercolour postcards. Unfortunatly I didn't keep it up, perhaps because there were no blogs back then to keep me focused.

Thursday, 21 August 2008

This is one of her favourite spots, in a sunbeam, by the french doors. There is a screen on the door which isn't apparent here so she is protected from the great scary outdoors, and the floor is about three feet off the ground. There must once have been a porch there. One day I would love to replace it

Sunday, 17 August 2008

7"X5" Oil on board
Garlic and tomatoes, a match made in heaven. I love tomato season, what can be better than a cheese and tomato sandwich with a little grating of black pepper?
We have two bushels of "romas" to process tonight. We have a hand-cranked tomato processor which we all take a hand at turning, we then cook the pulp down for a while to thicken it and freeze it in bags. Before the season is over we will probably do about 12-14 bushels. That should keep us in tomato sauce all year.

Saturday, 16 August 2008

Actually Black-eyed Susan and Jerusalem Artichoke or Rudbeckia hirta and Helianthus tuberosus. Actually both from my garden for a change, about the only things that do well seem to be these native species. I was getting bored with the selection at the market, rather gaudy and artificial looking.

I might as well have called it a study in green and yellow, or why to choose contrasting colours to make your life easier. I liked the composition though, with the strong shadow on the table.

Friday, 15 August 2008

I think I enjoy doing these more than anything. The tiny size forces me to choose simple subjects and a loose style. I may try a different support sometime, this paper is designed more for acrylics than oils I think and is very slick.

Wednesday, 13 August 2008

Hats, nobody wears them anymore, except the ubiquitous baseball cap. I hate to put sunscreen on my face, so I usually wear a hat in the summer but I feel slightly eccentric, or worse yet, affected. Still, I am old enough not to care too much.

I have been dissatisfied with most of what I have been painting recently so it is (literally) back to the drawing board. In my ongoing quest to conquer the ellipse I thought this summer straw would be a good subject. It is interesting how I can often see problems with a piece when it is already scanned and on the screen that I couldn't see when I was drawing/painting it. I am seeing that the band doesn't turn the corner properly and appears to flatten out. I obviously need to keep at it.

Tuesday, 12 August 2008

Now that the boys have passed their drivers tests I may not have to do this drive again. Now they can drive themselves to their baseball practice. It is actually quite beautiful out there in the late summer evening, although driving west at that time of night is pretty hazardous. If anyone is interested, I usually try to geolocate these pictures in my Picassa gallery.

Monday, 11 August 2008

Back to work, I managed to get a strip of house primed this evening before it started to rain again. I don't usually mind the rain too much but it sure is throwing a spanner into my plan to get the house painted this year.

Sunday, 10 August 2008

5"X7" Oil on board
I am not even sure what all of these are, some zinnias, some dianthus, some chrysanthemums. I am getting rather bored with the selection at the market, I may have to go further afield. My own garden is still pretty hopeless.

Saturday, 9 August 2008

7"X5" Oil on board
I have been wanting to paint peaches for a while, I am not sure I have done them justice yet. When will I ever learn to keep it simple? The elipse gave me trouble again. I also wasn't helped by having a friend drop by while I was painting. I resolutely continued, but I have never been good at painting while distracted. I did do a WIP for what it is worth.

EDIT
I did something I rarely do, I went back and adjusted this painting after it was posted. I am not sure that this is an improvement, but I had to try. This is the new version. I will leave the old one as well on the other blog.

Friday, 8 August 2008

5"X3" Pencil on paper
I need to do more of this sort of thing. I am having trouble finding enough time during the week to finish a painting. It has been a long time since I did a still-life like this in monochrome. I have trouble with ellipses, so lots more practice is needed.

Wednesday, 6 August 2008

Some of the games that the boys played in Pennsylvania last month were in Ford City. Actually, I think that the park was in "Ford Cliff" which overlooks Ford City, because this was the view from the park. According to Wikipedia:

Ford City is a borough in Armstrong County Pennsylvania, United States 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Pittsburgh along the east bank of the Allegheny River. It was founded in 1887 as a company town by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company. The town was named in honor of the company founder, John Baptiste Ford. PPG shut down its Ford City operations in the 1990s. The population was 3,451 at the 2000 census. This is quite an impressive church (cathedral?) for a town of 3,451!

Tuesday, 5 August 2008

7"X5" WC pencil on paper
This trailer sat at the corner of Townline and Church road for many years. I don't think anyone was living in it, it probably served as temporary shelter for farm workers. It was removed this Spring. For a WIP on this one go here.

Sunday, 3 August 2008

Some days it is really hard to decide what to paint. I could have done more apricots, plums or peppers. The peaches aren't quite ripe yet and the nectarines have all been eaten. J. bought a bag of organic lemons, I might paint them tomorrow. This cauliflower seemed to be both too uninteresting and too complicated to bother with, so I did.

Friday, 1 August 2008

This one was done from a photo I took last week. For fun I have done a WIP here. I have been so busy with painting my house that I have been having trouble finding time to paint my pictures. I will probably do some oils tomorrow.